[HILL-TOUT] PREHISTORIC MAN IN BRITISH COLUMBIA 117 
that it is the only one that has yielded any osteological data of import- 
ance. Whether from the large quantity of sand in it which may have 
acted as a drain, or from the fact that this large tree stood over it for 
many centuries, or from the combination of circumstances, the human 
remains in this mound have been better preserved, in part, than in the 
others. The long bones and several others, as well as the skull, were taken 
out almost whole ; though, unfortunately, all but the skull soon crumbled 
away. This, happily, I have been able in part to preserve. It is a strangely 
deformed skull, and in its excessive abnormality is probably without a 
parallel throughout this region of contorted crania. It does not appear, 
moreover, to conform to any of the three types known to have been prac- 
tised in former times on this coast." A bit of a second skull was recovered 
from one of the other mounds curiously enough preserved, when even the 
teeth had decayed, leaving nothing but an outline of their form in enamel, 
by being saturated with the verdigris from a copper ring buried with and 
alongside it. This piece, though small, is fortunately an important bit. 
It formed the upper part of the left orbit with adjoining portions of the 
frontal bone which shows the same extraordinary depression as is seen in 
the other. From this evidence it would seem that these mound builders 
practised cranial contortion of a very exaggerated kind and of a type 
unlike any known elsewhere in British Columbia past or present. Whether 
the custom will throw any light upon their history or help to identify them 
remains yet to be seen. To continue the description of the mounds, I 
may say, the fourth class dliffers in several essential features from the pre- 
ceding series. The chief characteristic seen here is an outer rectangular 
boundary of boulders, set side by side in the form of a square, having each 
of its sides facing towards one of the cardinal points of the compass like 
the pyramids of Mexico. This square was apparently laid off before the 
body- was interred, which was placed in the centre and covered as before 
with a pile of boulders similar to those forming the square. Over these 
again, and between them and the outer square, a layer of quicksand was 
placed ; then followed a thin layer of the dark gritty sand found in the 
other mound; over this again came more quicksand, followed by a layer 
of coarse brown sand over the whole extent of the mound extending to 
and beyond the outer boulders ; and on the top of this the sepulchral fire 
was kindled. Over the ashes of this fire more quicksand was heaped, 
followed by the capping of clay. (Vide section of this in plate IV.) The 
base or floor of this mound must have been sunk several feet below the 
level of the general surface of the land. The mound stood about six feet 
above the surrounding soil, but its height from top to bottom at the centre 
was nearly eleven feet. The copper bracelet figured on plate VI. was 
taken from this mound. The copper awl or spindle shown in the same 

1 Vide Sixth Report of the B. A. A. S. on the Northwestern tribes of Canada, 
pp. 95-96. 
